Mitt Romney promises to stop illegal immigration

Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney renewed his vow to salvage Social Security at a campaign stop Wednesday in the Sun Lakes retirement community south of Chandler.

Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, has emerged in the GOP field as a defender of the popular but financially stressed safety-net program for older Americans. During a televised debate Monday, he took Texas Gov. Rick Perry, his chief GOP rival, to task for calling it a Ponzi scheme. He continued to hammer his support for the program before a mostly friendly audience of about 500 people in a packed ballroom at Oakwood Country Club.

"I will save Social Security financially and as a federal program and a federal entitlement," Romney said during a 60-minute, town-hall-style meeting.

Romney took several shots at Perry, some veiled and some direct, over Social Security. Romney characterized Social Security as a savings plan or pension plan that has worked for 75 years while stressing that it is not a Ponzi scheme. He acknowledged that Social Security "absolutely" faces financial trouble in the future and that reforms are needed in order to keep the program solvent for younger Americans who are now working.

"There's no change needed for people who are currently retired or near retirement," Romney told the almost exclusively senior crowd. "But for those that are in their 20s, 30s and 40s, we're going to need to change the system somehow. . . . But don't worry, it's not going to change for anybody in this room."

Sun Lakes Republican Club Chairman Mike Tennant said Romney's campaign selected the location because "We've got senior voters down here who are very intelligent, and this is an important part of Arizona."

The town hall was one of three stops in the state Wednesday for Romney, who arrived two days after a strong performance in Monday's CNN/Tea Party Express GOP debate. He hosted a morning business round table in Tucson and held an evening fundraiser at the Tempe Center for the Arts.

Maricopa County voting records show that Sun Lakes' nine precincts have about twice as many registered Republicans as Democrats and voter turnout is extremely high - nearly 70 percent in the 2008 presidential election. Romney has talked a lot about Social Security, an issue that will resonate in a retirement area like Sun Lakes, said Scott Taylor, a Chandler District 21 Republican activist and Romney supporter

During the meeting, Romney fielded questions on topics such as energy policy, the loss of manufacturing jobs to overseas and tort reform. He also was asked about border security and illegal immigration, a perennial issue at any Republican candidate event in Arizona.

Romney said he likes legal immigration "a lot" and would stop illegal immigration by building a border fence.

Sun Lakes resident Elsie Rashleger, 90, said she was a lifelong Democrat until a few years ago and remembers Herbert Hoover's presidency from her childhood and Franklin Roosevelt's from the Depression years.

"I've gone through so many presidents, but I don't like what's going on now," she said. "Something's got to change. I like him (Romney), and I hope I live long enough to see him elected."

Mitt Romney speaks in a packed ballroom at the Oakwood Clubhouse at Sun Lakes Wednesday. Romney was one of the first of the 2012 Republicans running for the GOP Presidential nomination to come to Arizona. He campaigned Wednesday in Tucson and Sun Lakes and attended a private event in Tempe.